by Kamia Fair

Our BLACK SKIN

We shall not hate our BLACK SKIN,

We shall not let our BLACK SKIN

Define our character.

Our BLACK SKIN we shall love 

Why not love our BLACK SKIN?

They call us ghetto, but hello 

Our skin is in.

Put him in one room with 

fellas with different skin 

Watch him shine cause he’s a

BLACK MAN!

A black man with nappy hair

That’s a BLACK MAN.

We’re loud and clear, 

of course you can hear

When a BLACK HUMAN being is coming

You stare as if you never seen our BLACK SKIN.

We’re different, can’t you tell? 

We’re colored

Our heart is filled through

Our flaws in all 

We shall not hate our BLACK SKIN

We shall not let our BLACK SKIN

define our character

We are who we are 

And cannot change

To our nappy hair to our black toes

We cannot change who we are.

About Kamia Fair

Kamia Fair was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, and is a senior in high school at Manual Academy. Fair loves nature and R&B music. She has many personalities—one is a free spirit and another is closed in and shy. She loves anything that has a true meaning. Fair’s book is her voice and freedom. She likes to write about things like her past, present, and future, as well as the things she lives around. What inspired her to start writing poetry was trauma that happened in her past. It began as an every day journal, to finally bringing it out her inner self. Fair hopes to bring more people like herself from her community to write— or at least more people from her community to read what she speaks, and hope for it to inspire them and hope for them to hear her voice to feel where she is coming from.